What We Fund
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (the Center) makes panel-adjudicated grants in support of the Philadelphia region’s cultural organizations and artists.
Project grants support bringing artistically and programmatically excellent, ambitious, and substantive performances, exhibitions, and interpretation projects to fruition for diverse publics. The Center has two cultural project funding areas: Performance and Exhibitions & Public Interpretation. These two areas support projects that are multi- or interdisciplinary, as well as those based in a specific discipline. (The Center does not fund projects with an education-based or curricular focus or for which the primary audience is students.)
>> 2024 Project Grant Letter of Intent to Apply (LOI) Guidelines
>> 2024 Project Grant Full Application Guidelines
Evolving Futures grants are being offered for the first time in 2024. Proposals for these grants must be part of a strategic vision designed to result in demonstrably greater viability and sustainability for organizations ready to adapt, with clear goals and actionable plans.
Pew Fellowships in the Arts are unrestricted grants awarded to individuals working in all artistic disciplines. The Fellowships program awards grants of $85,000 annually to 12 exemplary artists working in the Philadelphia region. The Center’s goal is to assist these artists in furthering and innovating their work by awarding substantial financial support accompanied by a set of customized, focused professional- and career-development resources. Applicants for Pew Fellowships are invited to apply by nomination only.
Who is Eligible?
Applicants must meet the following threshold criteria. See our full guidelines linked below for complete eligibility requirements.
Project and Evolving Futures Grants
Organizations must—
- Be located in the five-county Philadelphia area (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia county).
- Have a 501(c)(3) designation and a minimum annual budget of $150,000.
- Have a demonstrated record of presenting professional public programs in the genre or content area identified in the grant proposal.
- Have full-time paid, professional, artistic/curatorial and managerial staff.
- Read the full eligibility criteria:
>>2024 Project Grant LOI Application Guidelines
>>2024 Evolving Futures Application Guidelines
Pew Fellowships in the Arts
Applicants must—
- Be nominated, as described by the Fellowships guidelines.
- Be residents of the five-county Philadelphia area (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia County).
- Be at least two years out of school or have equivalent career experience.
- Not be a full- or part-time student.
- Not be an employee of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts, a member of an employee’s household, or closely related to an employee.
- Not be a previous Pew Fellowship in the Arts recipient.
Project and Evolving Futures Grants: Application Process
Project Grants
- Prospective applicants should read the 2024 Project Grant LOI Guidelines.
- Applicants then schedule a meeting with Center program staff by February 8, 2024.
Write to apply@pewcenterarts.org to make an appointment.
Evolving Futures Grants
- Applicant organizations must have as their primary mission and defining purpose the presentation of art or public history programs for public audiences.
- Prospective applicants should read the 2024 Evolving Futures Grant Guidelines.
- Applicants then schedule a meeting with the Center’s executive director and senior program staff by February 15, 2024.
Write to apply@pewcenterarts.org to make an appointment.
Pew Fellowships: Application Process
- Artists are nominated and invited to apply for Fellowships.
- Nominations are collected from a diverse group of Philadelphia-based cultural practitioners with deep knowledge of artistic practices in the region.
- Once nominated, artists are notified and will schedule a meeting to discuss the application process and deadlines with Fellowships program staff.
Our Selection Process
Staff from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and staff from The Pew Charitable Trusts do not serve on the Project grants, Evolving Futures grants, or Pew Fellowships panels and do not determine grant recipients.
Project and Evolving Futures Grants
- Project grant applicants submit letters of intent to apply. An external group of diverse arts and culture professionals from outside of the Center’s funding region evaluate the LOIs. Each LOI is evaluated based on the applicant’s ability to address the grant making goals of the Center, as outlined in the LOI guidelines. Those applicants whose LOIs score highly are invited to submit full applications.
- Evolving Futures grant applicants meet with the Center’s executive director and senior program staff to discuss the strategic work that they propose to undertake with Center funding. Center staff then advises applicants of their eligibility to move forward with a proposal. Advancing applicants then submit project descriptions, estimated budgets, and financial audits. Following review of these materials, Center staff advise organizations of their eligibility to move forward to submit full applications.
- A peer review panel of 5–7 arts and culture professionals from outside of the Center’s funding region closely reviews the applications, then convene to discuss and determine which organizations will receive funding.
- Project grant panelists are chosen for their expertise in the areas of practice reflected in the applicant pool. Evolving Futures grant panelists are chosen for their experience, competence, and expertise in organizational development and administration.
Pew Fellowships
- Thirty nominators with deep knowledge of artists working in this region—and representing a wide range of expertise, experience, and points of view—are each asked to nominate up to two artists of exemplary talent living and working in the five-county Philadelphia area.
- Each nominated artist is invited to apply. Applications are sorted by artistic discipline and then reviewed by evaluators with expertise in that area. All of the evaluators come from outside of the Philadelphia region. They are selected for the breadth and depth of their knowledge in their respective fields.
- The Center convenes a panel of artists and arts professionals—also from outside of the Philadelphia region—to review the highest-ranked applications and select 12 Pew Fellows.
Joy Bivins
Panel chair, 2023; Panelist, 2022
Dr. Zoé Whitley
Panel chair, 2023
Pablo de Ocampo
Panel chair, 2023; Panelist, 2022
Ali Rosa-Salas
Panelist, 2023